Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink, an ink container, an inkjet recording device, and recorded matter.
Background Art
Inkjet printers have been drastically diffusing because of their advantages such as low acoustic noises and low running costs and printers capable of printing color images on plain paper are introduced into the market actively. However, it is extremely difficult to satisfy the demanded levels of properties such as color reproducibility of an image, abrasion resistance, durability, light resistance, dryness of an image, feathering, color bleed, duplex printing, and discharging stability. Accordingly, inks are selected depending on properties prioritized to a particular application in fact.
Image density and saturation have been improved and now is close to the quality of printing and electrophotography. However, pigments stay around the surface of plain paper, which causes a new problem that the fixability of an image deteriorates because the pigments on the surface easily come off.
In an attempt to improve the fixability, wax is added to an ink. The wax makes the surface of an image lubricant. This is better to significantly improve fixability in some cases, particularly when a large quantity of pigments are present on the surface, than a method of improving binding property by adding a large amount of resins. However, wax is melted or transformed upon application of heat or a strong force so that the wax may lose solubility in water. Wax that has lost water solubility easily adheres around in particular the nozzles located inside of a head that receives heat and a force. This leads to diversion of discharging.